Hi guys! I'm new here and I just have a few questions... I'm in a contest at the local race track to win a Cobalt SS (supercharged) and to win I have to go up against 8 other contestants in contest provided cobalts and the one with the fastest quarter mile time wins the car! So I was wondering if you guys could give me some pointers on what rpm to launch at and other launching/shifting techniques? I am not new to racing and I have a 97 trans am with a supercharged 355 and I also have a 90 GSX
Any help would be awesome!
Thanks Guys

 

well.....which one is faster between the gsx and firebird?firebird is low rpm torque monsters bcuz its a v8....gsx is all wheel drive...so just dont bog...ride that clutch baby...lol

 

well the hardest problems with this car at the drag strip is the wheel hop in first gear and the revlimiter hitting right at(sometimes seemed earlier than) the redline, so shift as close as you can to the red line w/o hitting the revlimiter(the peak horsepower is at the peak rpm in these cars. just remember the revlimiter hits at 6500 and also if u can avoid it try not shifting to 4th gear till after the marker. actually you shouldnt have to shift into 4th at all so dont!

 

oh and good luck!

 

Put clutch in, put in first, rev at 2000, let go of clutch fast but dont drop. Try not to spin too much and hold on! Hopefully the rossos will hook in second.

 

yeah i guess i suggest close to 2k rpm launch but most deffinatly not any higher, and ride the clutch if u can to avoid the wheel hop

 

Last night they let us make two practice runs in them and on my first pass I left the line at about 2 grand and pretty much wasted first gear and granny shifted to get used to it and ran a 16 flat then the next time around I left at about 1500 and didn't floor it till after it stopped spinning and nailed every shift and ran a 15.6 wich was the best time of the night out of everybody except one other guy ran almost an identical 15.6.
Now keep in mind i'm at about 5000 ft with almost 100 degree temps... I was actually really surprised with the outcome cuz the best time i've seen anybody run one is a 15.7.
Do you guys keep it floored inbetween shifts?

And to answer the wich is faster of my other cars, my gsx is stock so the TA has about 3.5 seconds on it lol

 

is this a cobalt ss/sc you are running 15.6 in, that number should be in the 14's

 

Yeah, Clutch manipulation is KEY in launching the SSs. I have about 4 sessions under my belt in it and STOCK... best time I did was 14.9, and that's all due to the first 60'.... I know others up there running a stock car and they have gotten down closer to 14.6-ish.. i just need practice

Need to get those 60 feet times down as low as you can ( lower than a 2.3 ) and as others have said, NOT bounce off the limiter. I never ran with the stock Rosso's so I can't comment on those.

questionsss....

1) are they letting you mess with air pressure??

2) Are they accounting for your reaction time or are they just going for low ET ?

3) is this a G85 equipped car? ( LSD )

Good luck and hope you do well... if nothing else, you get to flog an SS and hand it back!

 

I don't care who's driving, a stock ss/sc is not going to run under 15 at that altitude / temperature combination. Those conditions are just fugly. Depending on other factors, the density altitude is likely upwards of 9000 ft.

 

I agree with tomtwtwtw, there is NO WAY a stock cobalt is going to run a 14 at this altitude and those conditions! On my first run I did a 2.58 60' then a 2.54 on the second run so I just need to manipulate the clutch like littlestealthss said..
And no they don't let us do anything to the car but get in and drive. I don't know If it has G85, and its heads up racing so the reaction time doesn't hurt your time but does affect the outcome.

 

damn didnt think it would be that much of a difference, sucks for them

 

you will know if it has G85= LSD, if you are sitting is some nice Recaro seats, cant miss that, they are huggin as hell, and says Recaro on them

 

johnkb all u have is an intake?! wow those spark plugs must have been causing mad chaos, or maybe i got a bad wiff of air for my car cause with my stage 2, intake and exhaust i only got the dyno #s in my sig, i found out when i changed my stock plugs they were gapped really .025 for #1, and .030-.034 for the other plugs. that was dynoed at evolution performance a little bit ago...

 

Mine were gapped retardedly close too.

 

I didn't notice cuz I didn't have much time in them... I'll have to pay closer attention tomorrow night.

 

whats up with that stinkbomb? i thought that factory gapped plugs were always perfect if not too big

 

funkybird what do your other 2 cars run at the track? with the elevation being shitty and all

 

You should PM GTP he is probaly the most if not the experienced track driver on the site, Im sure he could give you some tips

 

I raced my eclipse once and had a shitty launch and ran a 15.7 and my best time with my stock motor in the TA was a 12.7

 

Well last night was the contest and before it got rained out we all made one pass and I won my race! I ran a 15.5 which is the best time in the contest so far! I'll keep you guys updated.

 

congrats it sounds like you're pretty consistent which I find a little difficult with the cobalt.

 

Well last night I made it into the finals with a new best time of 15.43! I'll keep you guys posted when the finals come.